Women campaigning for more room on the board

The boardroom is no 21st century playground — the standards of fairness and equality haven’t spurred companies to hire more women, but higher revenues and concerns about mandates might incite change.

In early May, Catalyst, the nonprofit organization focused on advancement of professional women, reported data on the representation of women on company boards globally, and the numbers were not flattering. The data showed that 15.7 percent of public board seats in the United States are occupied by women.

And Governance Metrics reported in March that 40 percent of the world’s largest public companies have never appointed a woman to their boards.

Such findings have spurred debate and, in some European countries, mandates that 40 percent of public board seats go to women. While the United States hasn’t created such mandates, grassroots and consulting groups such as 2020 Women on Boards are pushing companies to put more women on their boards before mandate discussions start.

Mary Cranston, former chair and CEO at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, thinks that female involvement on boards is crucial to shifting board dynamics and a pro-male culture that results in the hiring of male CEOs.

“If there aren’t any women on the board, then there likely won’t be women on the CEO hiring committee,” said Cranston who joined her first board in 2000 and now is sits on public boards, including Visa Inc., Juniper Networks and Exponent Inc. “Without females to help in the decision-making process and encourage the inclusion of female candidates, the cycle continues.”

Cranston is also familiar with the data showing that companies with a higher proportion of women on their boards outperform rivals with fewer female board members.

“Many businesswomen respond different fiscally when there is a crisis,” said Cranston. “And often that group-think mentality is broken up when diversity is present.”

“Female antennas go up for different issues and concerns,” said Alison Davis, the former CEO of the banking holding company Belvedere SoCal, who sits on five boards across the country. “Honestly, women are more likely to bring up the elephant in the room and put things on the table to hash them out — that is a valuable element for boards to consider.”

Davis has seen an increase in the number of companies in Europe reaching out to women already on boards.

“In the last year or so I have been getting calls from UK and French companies that want to tap the established board women for these new mandates,” said Davis. “I’ve gotten in the habit of keeping a list of women that I can suggest to them so that more women get the opportunity, and we are not just cycling through the same pool like we have been for years.”

Networking and reaching out to current board members is also a key component in the equation since board outreach often begins with casual suggestions among current members. Davis expressed concern that the board search committees in the United States don’t have enough female names in their Rolodexes.

Amal Johnson, the chair of software and market research company MarketTools, who sits on several Bay Area public and private boards, admits that the hardest part is getting on the first board since most search committees are looking for experience.

“When you see that only around 10 percent of CEOs are women and most boards want to get CEOs, the pool is small to begin with,” said Johnson. “But it is key to be diligent and encourage women and boards to be open to new candidates so a real mix of ideas and experiences can be present.”